The Really Scary Thought, and reality needs to set in!

The Really Scary Thought, and reality needs to set in!

Hair Trigger John McCain

Alias John McBush III

It’s The Judiciary Committee Stupid

It’s Also the Congress, Stupid

http://news.yahoo.com/election/2008/dashboard

The bottom line is that this election is all but over for Hillary Clinton unless she is hell bent on self and party destruction is playing out the super delegate card. At this point those delegates may have read the hand writing on the wall and will not want any part of that action and the fall out it will produce. If she is determined to go down in flames, we’ll all bear witness to the conflagration in Denver. There are real signs, however, that the media is ready to kick her to the curb and may play a greater role in bringing this matter to a conclusion and moving on to the Obama-McCain showdown. They are ready for the next inning.

Whittling the field down to Obama/McCain would put a damper on any Gore, Nader and Bloomberg rumblings. Gore would no longer be a “draft in conflict” candidate; Nader will be essentially be media ignored if he makes a move and Bloomberg would not have the sanction of “Old Guard” Centrists in search of a unifier.

Both Obama and McCain would have to bring as much of their prospective parties together in unity as possible with their Vice-Presidential picks. Campaign issues will be redefined and sound bites will give way to demands for increase specificity of intent and programs.

The economy will remain central and Iraq will come back into increased play, and maybe the most constructive outcome will be health care reform being fleshed out and the immigration issue having to be dealt with realistically.

By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer 18 minutes ago

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Texas and Ohio: Two states, two debates, one chance for Hillary Rodham Clinton to save her moribund candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The former first lady suffered another bruising night Tuesday, badly losing the Wisconsin primary and the Hawaii caucuses to Barack Obama. The Illinois senator has now crushed Clinton in 10 straight contests, amassing a growing delegate lead and building support among women and white working class voters who have long formed the core of Clinton's candidacy.

Clinton aides have tried gamely for weeks to downplay her chances in Wisconsin and shift focus to Ohio and Texas, two large, delegate-rich states holding primaries March 4. Texas offers a large population of Hispanic voters who have so far rallied to her candidacy, while Ohio is home to millions of blue collar Democrats her strategists believe are receptive to her populist economic pitch.

The New York senator is also banking on a strong showing in two nationally televised debates, hoping to remind voters of her detailed mastery of issues.

But Democratic strategist Garry South said Clinton's hope for a Texas and Ohio comeback has dwindled with each Obama victory.

"Hillary Clinton is honestly hanging by a thread. You can't just keep cherry picking states," South said. "Momentum is overused more than any other word in campaigns, but there is a momentum factor. And at the moment she doesn't have it."

Clinton's top advisers in Ohio and Texas nonetheless gave an upbeat assessment Tuesday, telling reporters the outcome in Wisconsin would have little bearing on her chances in the two states.

"Texas is one of those great independent states," state director Ace Smith said, while Ohio director Robby Mook added, "I don't think Ohio voters are worried about the horse race."

Perhaps.

But strategists say a win or even a close showing in Wisconsin could have been a game changer for Clinton — a chance to slow Obama's momentum in a place that seemed tailor-made to her strengths. While the state is home to many of the college-educated Democrats who have typically favored Obama, it also has a large population of elderly and blue collar voters who have formed the core of Clinton's base.

Exit polls in the state indicate that base is eroding, with Obama making significant inroads among less educated voters, whites and women while maintaining strength among younger, better educated voters and blacks. Only elderly white voters stuck with Clinton.

Obama spent most of last week in Wisconsin, generating days of TV news and front page headlines. He also advertised heavily there on television.

Clinton stayed away until Saturday but ran her first negative television ads in the state, ripping the Illinois senator for refusing to debate her there.

"The notion that your Democratic voters in Wisconsin, a big Midwestern state, are so different than they are in Ohio, another big Midwestern state, that you can ignore one and win big in the other is a really strange strategy," South said.

While polls in Ohio and Texas currently appear favorable to Clinton, Obama benefits from a two-week lag time until voters in both states go to the polls. He has ample time and money to chip away at her lead, especially in Ohio where he has attacked Clinton for her past support of trade deals like NAFTA that have disproportionally hurt working class voters. Clinton has become a NAFTA critic even though she has previously helped champion the measure as a product of her husband's presidency.

By RON FOURNIER, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 10 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The Democratic nomination is now Barack Obama's to lose.

After 10 consecutive defeats — including a heartbreaker in tailor-made Wisconsin on Tuesday — Hillary Rodham Clinton can't win the nomination unless Obama makes a major mistake or her allies reveal something damaging about the Illinois senator's background. Don't count her out quite yet, but Wisconsin revealed deep and destructive fractures in the Clinton coalition.

It's panic-button time.

That explains why Clinton's aides accused Obama of plagiarism for delivering a speech that included words that had first been uttered by Deval Patrick, the Massachusetts governor and a friend of Obama. The charge bordered on the hypocritical — Clinton herself has borrowed Obama's lines — and by itself was unlikely to have an impact on the race.

Clinton claimed Tuesday that reporters, not her campaign, pushed the plagiarism story line. That is not true.

The Clinton camp hopes to produce other instances of rhetorical theft and show a pattern of bad behavior. The danger for Obama is anything that undercuts his image as a candidate who rises above politics. Something like this might work to Clinton's advantage: Obama is backtracking on a pledge to abide by spending caps in the general election, and his explanation is bogus.

Obama is undeniably raw. Less than four years removed from the Illinois Legislature, he stands at the brink of the Democratic nomination and will soon go one-on-one in debates with a tough and savvy former first lady. The odds of a misstep are low but not impossible for these reasons: Clinton will grow increasingly negative; Obama faces more scrutiny as the new front-runner; his performance in multi-candidates debates was uneven; and the charmed Illinois senator has never faced political crises.

Should Obama stumble in the next two weeks, does he know how to recover?

Clinton certainly knows how to bounce back. She helped her husband, Bill, recover from near-death experiences during his White House run and rebounded herself after a thumping in Iowa.

But her rival has won the most states, earned the most pledged delegates and has all the momentum. Clinton needs to win Ohio and Texas on March 4 — then Pennsylvania in April — to narrow Obama's lead among pledged delegates. Only then could she argue with a straight face that a majority of the nearly 800 free-roaming "superdelegates" should back her over Obama.

"Both Senator Obama and I would make history," the former first lady told supporters Tuesday night. "But only one of us is ready on Day One to be commander in chief, ready to manage our economy and ready to defeat the Republicans. Only one of us has spent 35 years being a doer, a fighter and a champion for those who need a voice."

Only one of them can win, and it doesn't look good for her.

"The chances of Obama doing something that's going to cause a major problem are about as low as her doing something that will turn it around," said Democratic strategist Bill Carrick, who is not tied to either campaign. "When you start pressing to come back, it's usually the person who's behind who makes the mistake."

Ignore the Clinton advisers who argue that Wisconsin was just a bump on the road en route to the tell-all March 4 primaries. Listen instead to the message sent by her ragged coalition:

Obama led among whites (widely among white men), moderates and those earning less than $50,000, all bastions of Clinton's past strength. Obama and Clinton split the vote among women, erasing her one-time advantage.

Demographically, Wisconsin was a warm-up for Ohio: nearly 90 percent of Tuesday's voters were white; about 40 percent earn less than $50,000 annually; nearly 60 percent have no college degree; and half are over 50 years old — all demographics that have tended to favor Clinton.

In a sign of desperation, the Clinton camp floated the idea of poaching delegates that Obama earned via elections. While allowable under Democratic National Committee rules, the tactic would likely divide Democrats along racial lines and set the party back decades.

It would be the ultimate act of selfishness and foolishness. Even Clinton must realize there is little she can do to win the nomination. She can only help Obama lose it.

FOR THE RECORD: New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson denies a report in last week's column that former President Clinton chastised him for withholding his endorsement. "It never happened," said spokesman Pahl Shipley. "The president never said that to Governor Richardson. They are old friends who remain on great terms."

Some things to think about!